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What’s New in Windows Server 2008 R2?

Let’s take a quick look at new or improved features of Windows Server 2008 R2. The Server 2008 R2 RTM is now available for download by MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers.

R2 is the first operation system from Microsoft that is only available in 64 bit versions, one version for Itanium (ia64) and another version for Intel and AMD (x64) processors.

This could be an issue for those who wish to run 32 bit apps that can not be made compatible with a 64 bit OS.

One of the most eagerly awaited improvements is that PowerShell 2.0 and .NET Framework are now supported on Server Core. This functionality was sorely missed in the original release of Server 2008 by Core devotees.

I am a big fan of Hyper-V and R2 has Live Migration which enables failover of a virtual machine from one node on a cluster to another without any noticeable interruption to clients. See the video demonstration at:

Add to this list of improvements more energy efficiency (a real factor as we get into multiple cores!), support for 64 physical CPUs or 256 cores, Remote Access improvements and enhanced Branch Office management.

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